A Heart-to-Heart
by MoiraM
Summary: Garrus and Liara have a heart-to-heart about their relationships with Shepard while the Commander sleeps nearby. Set during the events of Mass Effect 3, after Rannoch but before Thessia. This fic is more about the friendship between Liara and Garrus, however their relationships with Shepard, especially Liara's, feature prominently. Generic!FemShep and FemShep/Liara romance warning!


**Garrus and Liara have a heart-to-heart about their relationships with Shepard while the Commander sleeps nearby. Set**** during the events of Mass Effect 3, after Rannoch but before Thessia. Generic FemShep and FemShep/Liara romance warnings. This fic, however, is more about the friendship between Liara and Garrus.**

**AN: Well, this is my first foray into published fanfiction. I've written a few pieces for my own enjoyment but nothing I thought worth sharing. However, I think I read somewhere recently that it isn't writing until it is shared. So, I humbly submit this bit of fluff for the enjoyment of the masses. Comments and criticisms welcome.**

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The doors to the Normandy's port-side lounge closed behind Garrus with a quiet hiss. The sight that had greeted him when he entered had startled him but he recovered quickly.

"Watching her sleep, T'Soni? That's a bit creepy, even for you," he said quietly to the person on his right.

Liara sat on the couch near the door, relaxed, leaning back, legs crossed at the knee. She kept one hand in her lap, the other held loosely to a forgotten datapad on the couch next to her as she watched the sleeping figure on the couch across the room. She looked up at Garrus when he spoke and shushed him with a gloved finger over her smiling lips before gesturing for him to join her on the L-shaped couch.

"She has not been sleeping well lately. I wanted to make sure she was not disturbed," Liara replied softly.

Garrus joined her on the couch, leaning back and crossing his own legs at the ankles before regarding the prone form on the other side of the room. Commander Shepard lay on her stomach on the couch across from them. Her head was turned toward them, left arm bent above her head, the other hung over the side of the couch, her hand resting upturned on the floor near a discarded datapad. Her right leg was bent slightly at the knee, ankle resting on the calf of her other leg. A half-finished drink sat in a coaster on the ottoman next to the couch where Shepard slept.

"We were trying to relax while still getting some work done," Liara explained quietly, gesturing to Shepard's abandoned datapad on the floor. "I suppose the Normandy's departmental reports were a bit too relaxing for the commander."Liara stifled a small laugh with a hand over her mouth.

Garrus flashed Liara the turian equivalent of a wicked grin, mandibles twitching with amusement. He was about to reply with a witty rejoinder but as he glanced over at Shepard the remark died in his throat. The look on her face was something Garrus couldn't quite place.

"I've never seen her like this," Garrus said softly after a moment, "Asleep, I mean. She looks so…" Garrus wasn't sure what he was trying to say. Liara tilted her head slightly, watching him and waited for her friend to find his words.

"When she's awake she seems to be perpetually in motion, even when she's standing still." Garrus' mandibles twitched with a touch of laughter. Liara smiled and shifted her gaze to the commander, nodding faintly in agreement.

"She always seems ready to leap into action at a moment's notice. But now, like this, she seems…still? Peaceful? No, that's not quite the right word…" Garrus struggled, unsure himself what he was trying to convey.

"I believe I know what you mean, Garrus," Liara said gently. "She is a tightly coiled spring, even when she is relaxed. It is only when she sleeps that the coils begin to truly unwind and she becomes…I believe the word you are looking for is…serene."

"Yes, I think that's about right," agreed Garrus, tilting his head and studying Shepard again. "Like the calm before a storm, maybe." Garrus winked at Liara.

Liara chuckled quietly, shaking her head. Her eyes wandered the commander's sleeping shape. "It is so against her nature. I had trouble placing it as well the first time I saw her sleep." Liara paused. "I have come to enjoy seeing her like this."

Garrus watched as Liara's smile slowly fell and her gaze fell to the hand in her lap. He had to lean forward a bit to hear her whispered next words.

"I have not seen her like this since before Earth…before Aratoht…" Liara looked at Garrus, the worry evident in her eyes. "Her sleep is troubled now, Garrus. I believe she has been having nightmares but she will not tell me about them."

"I doubt much if anyone is sleeping soundly these days, Liara," Garrus reassured her, pointedly studying his own talons. The Reaper invasion had everyone on edge and the Normady's crew was acutely aware that, as every second passed, people were dying on Earth and on Palaven. Garrus thought of his father and sister and said a silent prayer for the spirits to guide them to safety.

Sighing, Liara nodded her agreement, her eyes flicking idly over the datapad at her side before settling on Shepard once again. After a few moments a small, sad smile returned to her face.

"I suppose that is why I wanted to be sure she was not disturbed," said Liara quietly, "With all that is happening…with all the weight on her shoulders…well, she deserves a little peace."

The two sat in companionable silence for a while. Liara returned the datapad to her lap to resume reading while Garrus simply sat enjoying the quiet company of his friends.

A faint groan from Shepard brought them both to attention. Her brows were knitted together in a scowl and the muscles in her shoulders and back were rigid. The hand above her head was clenched in a fist and the fingers of the hand on the floor twitched weakly in a rhythm known only to the commander.

Rising quickly and quietly and tossing her datapad to the couch, Liara crossed the room and, after moving the drink, sat on the ottoman near Shepard. Her fingertips delicately brushed Shepard's forehead, sweeping away a stray strand of hair. The tightly knit brows almost instantly relaxed. Garrus watched as Liara began tenderly stroking Shepard's hair. The effect on the commander was almost imperceptible at first; slowly but surely, her muscles began to ease and her fist loosened but her fingers continued to twitch intermittently.

When Shepard had calmed, Liara resumed her seat on the couch near Garrus. She picked up her datapad and set it in her lap but didn't continue reading, studying Shepard instead. The scene had made his heart clench in his chest, wishing it was him who had that soothing effect on Shepard instead of Liara. Knowing he was being masochistic, he couldn't stop the next words from leaving his lips.

"When did you know you were in love with her?"

"Oh, I suppose it was from the very beginning," Liara replied, smiling wistfully at Shepard. "If it was not the exact moment I first saw her, certainly it was at least from the moment she reached down to pick me up off the floor of that dig site on Therum; her rifle cocked arrogantly off her hip and that crooked grin of hers looking down at me." Liara shook her head. "It sounds silly now, especially after the old Earth tales Shepard has told me about damsels in distress and knights in shining armor, but it is the truth; I fell for my dashing rescuer." She looked at Garrus with a half-cocked smirk that was a good imitation of Shepard. "What about you, Garrus?"

"What about me, what?" he asked, raising one eyebrow plate and crossing his arms.

"When did you realize you loved her?"

Garrus' shocked silence filled the room.

He wracked his brain for a moment, his eyes flitting everywhere but Liara and Shepard, trying to figure out how Liara had discovered his infatuation with the commander. He had always been careful to show no more affection than friendship toward her.

Finally, his blue eyes met hers, expecting to find anger or jealousy, but was surprised to find warmth and understanding there instead. Sighing resignedly, mandibles flapping in irritation, he decided to answer truthfully. It was not something he had admitted out loud to anyone, much less himself, but Liara was his friend and she deserved his honesty.

"I'm not sure, exactly. I guess it was gradual. It started as respect, watching her work and fight. She'd come around to chat with me, like she did all of her crew. She showed me a respect I would never have expected, coming from a human. Eventually, we became friends. We'd share war stories over gun calibrations or a beer. Though, her driving skills nearly undid it for me." Garrus chuckled at the memories; they were some of his happiest.

"I don't know when I realized I felt something more than friendship. I denied it for a long time. I mean… a turian and a human? Ha! The notion was ridiculous. By the time I started to come around to the idea the two of you were making googly eyes at each other." Garrus gave Liara a poignant grin and she returned a sad smile of her own.

"And then she was gone," he said turning serious. "And we all did what we had to after that," Garrus added in a whisper, echoing Liara's own words on Illium just last year.

The words stung her somewhat. Liara studied her hands in her lap, thinking back on the past three years; Shepard's death, Liara's quest to retrieve Shepard's body, her hunt for the Shadow Broker, and her absence from the Normandy…

"When she came back, and I was…absent…why did you not make your affections known?" Liara asked carefully without looking up at him.

"Because, even when she thought you'd moved on, it was still obvious she was not going to get over you any time soon. Any advances I would have tried to make would not have been welcome and I valued our friendship too much." He chuckled quietly before adding, "I heard about Taylor trying to hit on her and that Shepard had…what is the phrase humans use...'kicked his ass up around his ears'?" Garrus chuckled again. "So, no, I wasn't about to try anything with her."

Liara silently contemplated what Garrus had said, eyes focused on her datapad but mind wandering elsewhere. She still somewhat regretted the time she had spent away from Shepard after her return. She had been confused about her own feelings. When she had retrieved Shepard's body she had been desperate to get her love back, but once she had returned, Liara feared the heartache that would come when Shepard inevitably died again.

"Liara," Garrus said, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees to get her attention. "She thought you were in love with Feron. But she helped you get him back anyway because she only ever wanted you to be happy…even if it was with someone else."

The revelation was not entirely new to her. Liara had her suspicions when they stormed the Shadow Broker's lair, but to hear them spoken aloud was still a bit of a shock. Feron was a friend who had sacrificed himself to save her, a friend to whom both she and Shepard owed their lives, but still just a friend. Garrus reached out to touch her hand and continued in a whisper.

"She loves you."

Liara's cheeks flushed a slightly darker shade of blue and she returned Garrus' direct gaze with watery eyes.

"I know," she replied in her own whisper. Yes, Shepard would die again, either in the battles to come or sometime in the future. But the time she had with this amazing woman was worth cherishing. It was something she knew in her heart but had still had trouble accepting, even after their reunion on Mars. Somehow, Garrus had conveyed that sentiment and helped her accept it with just a few short words.

"Thank you." She squeezed Garrus' hand, suddenly appreciative of his friendship in a whole new way.

The two of them jumped when Shepard suddenly stirred. She yawned and stretched, rolling over on the couch to face away from them, but showed no other signs of waking. The intimate moment of friendship broken, Garrus and Liara simply smiled at each other before returning to a comfortable silence. Garrus got up and poured himself a glass of turian brandy before returning to his seat and Liara resumed scrutinizing her datapad.

"So… how did you figure out…?" Garrus asked, suddenly curious but unable to finish the question, still unable to say it out loud. But Liara knew what he was asking and it was her turn to chuckle.

"Oh, Garrus, you are hardly the only other of Shepard's crew to fall for our dashing commander." Liara fought the urge to laugh out loud, still trying not to disturb the slumbering woman. "The signs were all there. I think all of us have harbored a "crush" on her at one point or another, even our dear, sweet Tali. Though I think she has her eyes on someone _else_ now," Liara finished, shooting Garrus a mischievous look and again imitating the commander with a crooked grin. Garrus lifted an eyebrow plate at that last bit and leaned forward.

"What do you m…"

He was interrupted when Shepard suddenly rolled over and sat up, stretching. She eyed the two of them.

"What are you two doing, exchanging deck side gossip?" Shepard asked with a yawn. She shook her head, looking at them both in turn.

"Like a couple of old hens," she said, but the smile on her face was affectionate. She sighed and scooped up her abandoned datapad off the floor.

"I suppose I'll go finish these reports in the CIC where I won't fall asleep," she said with a lopsided grin as she stood and started for the door. She stopped suddenly, looking contemplatively at the datapad in her hand.

"At least I would hope I wouldn't fall asleep standing up," she said, then looked at the two of them again, "But it's hard to say with reports this boring!" Shepard laughed and started for the door again. Garrus bolted to his feet and reached out a hand as though to stop her, though she was well out of his reach.

"Shepard…how much…er…what exactly…did you…hear?" Garrus stuttered, staring at a particularly interesting spot on the floor near Shepard's feet. Shepard crossed her arms, shifted her weight to one hip and shot Garrus one of her patented grins.

"Nothing I didn't know already, Garrus."

Garrus' heart stopped in his chest…_she knew_…

"Honestly, I don't know how you haven't noticed Tali looking at you before now!" Shepard flashed him a wink, spared another wink for Liara, and was out the door, her laugh echoing behind her.

Garrus sat back down with a grunt as his breath returned to him, running a hand over his face. Liara, who had watched the exchange with a small smile, reached out and patted his knee comfortingly. Releasing a deep breath and peeking out from between his talons, Garrus looked at Liara. After a moment he spoke.

"So…Tali, huh?"


End file.
